Not much is known about the Burnett typewriter that was introduced in 1908. The machine was short-lived and is very rare today.

The Burnett apparently was a slightly changed version of the Triumph Visible that had been put on the market by the Visible Typewriter Manufacturing Company a year earlier. That machine also had failed. The Burnett was marketed by the Sears, Roebuck mail order company, but few were sold.

The machine has an awkward appearance with the type laying backward at an angle, as a semi-frontstrike/downstrike machine. It is an otherwise common 4-bank typewriter.